Suggested Topics for Discussion:

  • Busking across Spain without any money (or musical skill). This involves:
    – A fun travel story
    – Looking differently at what ‘adventure’ means, and making that relevant to people in real life
    – The difficulty and importance of beginning
    – Trying to live more adventurously in everyday life
    – Embracing risk, vulnerability and our fear of embarrassment
    – The struggle between trying to be both an ambitious, adventurous individual and a good father
    – The fear of time passing quickly and the desire to live a full, worthwhile life
  • Making a career as an Adventurer / Creative / Author / Blogger etc.
  • Microadventures: growing a community focussing on making adventure accessible and achievable for everyone. (A good New York Times summary here.)
  • Cycling round the world, rowing the Atlantic, walking across southern India, crossing the Empty Quarter desert etc.

Info about Alastair:

Alastair Humphreys is a British Adventurer and Author and Blogger. He once spent 4 years cycling round the world, a journey of 46,000 miles through 60 countries and 5 continents. More recently Alastair has walked across southern India, rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, run six marathons through the Sahara desert, completed a crossing of Iceland and participated in an expedition in the Arctic, close to the magnetic North Pole. He has trekked 1000 miles across the Empty Quarter desert and 120 miles round the M25 – one of his pioneering microadventures. Alastair was named as one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the year for 2012. He has spoken at events such as TED, SXSW, for companies as diverse as Google, Facebook, Twitter, England Rugby and UK Special Forces. Alastair has written 11 books.

Useful bits and bobs linked to My Midsummer Morning:

 Info about the journey: 

In 1935 a young Englishman called Laurie Lee arrived in Spain. He had never been overseas; had hardly even left the quiet village he grew up in. He was searching for adventure and chose Spain simply because he knew one phrase in Spanish – ¿un vaso de agua, por favor? His idea was to walk through the country, earning money for food by playing his violin in bars and plazas.

The book Laurie Lee wrote – As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning – is my favourite book. It made me fall in love with Spain – the landscapes and the spirit – and with his style of travel. He travelled slow, lived simply, slept on hilltops, relished spontaneity, and loved conversations with the different people he met along the hot and dusty road.

For 15 years I dreamed of retracing Laurie Lee’s footsteps. But there was one massive obstacle standing in my way. I could not play the violin, nor any other instrument. A large part of the appeal of Laurie Lee’s experience was that he was singing for his supper, living from hand to mouth, with little idea of when he would next earn some money to buy his next meal. For my own story to feel authentic, I needed that uncertainty in my walk. The thought of having no money and having to perform in public to try to earn some was terrifying!

And so, for many years, my fantasy lingered as nothing more than a dream.

Eventually, I decided to do something about it. I realised that after many years of doing conventional expeditions and journeys I was actually in my comfort zone – exactly what a life of adventure was supposed to help me avoid in the first place! So I began to look differently at what adventure meant to me. I bought a violin and began learning to play. I had never played music in front of an audience, and it is one of my deepest fears. It promised to be a hungry and deeply embarrassing journey! (In the end, I earned 120 Euros over the course of a month: I lived like a king with such riches!)

I did not carry any money with me: it was the violin or bust. And I was absolutely terrible at playing the violin (video proof). I found this vulnerability extremely un-nerving at first. But is the essence of adventure not to seek out that which scares you? To risk failure and uncertainty? I was more excited and more frightened about this adventure than anything I have done for many years.

Book cover for My Midsummer Morning by Alastair Humphreys